Walt Before Mickey

Plot: A biopic of Walt Disney (Nicholas) before he became the super famous and rich Walt Disney we all know and love.

What Works: Thomas Ian Nicholas kinda looks like a young Walt Disney.

What Doesn’t: They tried to get dramatic performances out of Thomas Ian Nicholas and Jon Heder. Good god. There are actors on Freeform that are stronger than this. Jon Heder should never do drama ever again. He’s incapable of being taken seriously. And Jodie Sweeten? Just…No. This film is SO SLOW. I’m not sure there was an editor for this. I think everything they shot ended up on screen. There are scenes that go on too long, long shots of Disney pondering or crying or talking to a mouse. There are scenes that feel redundant, and others that just make no sense. There’s literally a scene where Walt is shown pity by his team, some of whom actually offer them the little bit of cash they have, which is followed by a scene where half his team quits because Walt isn’t paying them, which is followed by Walt having a shocking phone call that he’s bankrupt. This film is all over the place in terms of story editing. The score is pretty, but it has nothing to do with what’s actually happening. It doesn’t highlight or help the image. It just is pretty music in the background. Honestly, if I wasn’t somewhat interested in learning more about Walt Disney, I would have stopped watching. It’s just such a poorly made film.

Final Word: A gigantic waste of time. I hope this doesn’t scare anyone off of making an actual biopic of Walt Disney. This is a pretty worthless film that plays like it was made by a first time director that skipped film school. It is Khoa Le’s first film as a director, and will most certainly be his last. Anyone who watches this will know better than to hire him.